Penn Carey Law Milestones: Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander Historical Timeline
This exhibit starts in 1900 when Chinese diplomat Wu Ting-Fang’s friendship with the Law School Dean forged the opening of the Law School's doors to Chinese students and all subsequent Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander contributions to the Law School, helping to cement the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Law School.
1900 – Wu Ting-Fang, Chinese diplomat and personal friend of Penn Carey Law School Dean William Lewis Draper awarded degree of Doctor of Laws at University Day which coincided with the dedication of new law school building 7 Asian J. Legal Educ 196 (2020) https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/2322005820923463
1906 –Henry Kumphrey Chang, also known as Henry Kung Hui Chang, becomes the first Chinese undergrad student admitted 7 Asian J. Legal Educ 200 (2020) https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/2322005820923463
1908 - Yang Yin Hang, also known as Yang Yai Hang or Yang Yai Hong becomes the first Chinese graduate student admitted to the Law School’s new LLM program 7 Asian J. Legal Educ 205 (2020) https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/2322005820923463
1909 - Henry Kumphrey Chang (Henry Kung Hui Chang ) awarded the Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) on June 16,1909, making him the first Chinese student to graduate from the Law School at Penn. 7 Asian J. Legal Educ 208 (2020) https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/2322005820923463
1910 – Yang Yin Hang (Yang Yai Hang or Yang Yai Hong ) becomes Penn Carey Law student and first Chinese graduate of the LLM program 7 Asian J. Legal Educ 208 (2020) https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/2322005820923463
1975 – Asian American Law Group started
1992 – Asian American Law Group changes name to Asian Pacific American Law Students Association http://www.pennapalsa.org/index.html
1997 – SALAAM created for students with an interest in South Asia
2001 – SALAAM changes name to South Asian Law Student Association https://www.law.upenn.edu/students/student-organizations.php
- Asian Pacific American Law Student Association presents inaugural conference exploring Asian-American lawyer issues
2004 - Chinese Law and Policy Review first published
- A program with Waseda University creates a study-abroad program that enables Law School students to spend the fall semester at Waseda to develop expertise in a wide range of legal issues with global significance. https://www.law.upenn.edu/international/study-abroad/waseda/
2005 – The Law School creates an exchange program with Tsinghua Law School, allowing non-Chinese speaking students to study Chinese legal developments at Tsinghua Law School. https://www.law.upenn.edu/international/study-abroad/tsinghua/index.php
2007 - Chinese Law and Policy Review broadens coverage to East Asia and changes name to East Asia Law Review
- The China Alumni Club established by Matthew Erie L’08 and Xudong Ni LLM’06.
2010 - The Law School, with the University of Hong Kong, creates a JD/LLM Double Degree Program. https://www.law.upenn.edu/crossdisciplinary/jointdegree/jd-llm-hong-kong.php
- The Bok Visiting International Professors Program begins with Setsuo Miyazawa, Professor of Law at Aoyama Gakuin University (Tokyo, Japan) as the inaugural recipient. Over the years Bok Professors have included Chenguang Wang, Den of Tsinghua Law School; Zhaojie Li, Professor of Law, Tsinghua University Law School; Krishnan, Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India; Hideki Kanda, Professor of Law, University of Tokyo; Xixin Wang, Vice Dean and Professor, Peking University; Hualing Fu, Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong; Johannes Chan, Dean of Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University; Indira Jaising, Former Additional Solicitor General of India; Takao Suami, Professor of Law, Waseda University; Hina Jilani, Former UN Special Representative for Human Rights Defenders; Shamnad Basheer, Scholar of Intellectual property and innovation law; architect of the IP blog SpicyIP; Radhika Coomaraswamy, Under-Secretary-General of the UN, Special Rep. for Children and Armed Conflict (2006-12), member of the UN Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.
2019 – Raymond Magsaysay L’22 and Jasmine Wang L’22 among first recipients of the inaugural First Generation Fellows https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/news/9512-penn-laws-inaugural-first-generation-fellows.
2020 – Grace Cho L’22 and Raymond Magsaysay L’22 chosen to participate in the prestigious Don H. Liu Scholars Program https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/news/10121-apalsa-members-grace-cho-l22-and-raymond-magsaysay
- SALSA presents first annual South Asians in the Legal Profession conference
2021 – Penn Carey Law Global Exchange creates a study-abroad program allowing Law School studnts at Penn to take one course at the Hong Kong University Law Faculty. https://www.law.upenn.edu/international/global-online-courses.php